Marco Balzano: Strategic Agility and Organizational Zemblanity

A discussion of the article: "Post-Error Adjustments: Strategic Agility and Organizational Zemblanity" by Marco Balzano

https://cmr.berkeley.edu/2025/08/67-4...

California Management Review
Volume 67, Issue 4
https://cmr.berkeley.edu/browse/issue...

Errors pose critical tests for firms, challenging their ability to recover or else face decline. This article frames strategic agility as a response mechanism to overcome errors. Conversely, when firms are repeatedly unable to enact strategic agility, they can enter a hindering state where they struggle to take corrective actions. In this state, it is likely that firms will inadvertently activate error-amplifying feedback loops, becoming the primary architects of their own misfortune. This state is conceptualized as “organizational zemblanity,” which has three root causes: deteriorative culture, leadership deficiencies, and structural inefficiencies.

KEYWORDS: agility, business growth, business strategies, decline, feedback loop, root cause analysis